updated 02:40 pm EST, Mon November 6, 2006

Sub-$400 Laptop Available

Although information about the release surfaced in advance of the launch, Wal-Mart today began shipping to stores its budget laptop aimed at capturing holiday sales in advance of Thanksgiving. As confirmed previously, the 15.4-inch Presario V5305WM lowers its price to an unprecedented $398 by using a low-cost 2GHz AMD Sempron processor, 512MB of RAM, and a DVD/CD-RW combo drive. The new system should be available at retail as of today.

However, this may not be the lowest-priced portable available as of this month, according to NPD TechWorld analyst Stephen Baker. "We're probably going to see a $199 notebook on Black Friday," he says. Black Friday, the day after American Thanksgiving, is often regarded as the single largest day of shopping in the US and often features heavy discounts by retailers to draw in as many customers as possible.